Disturbingly, not long ago I was having dinner with a former long time Major League player that spoke about the steroid use of a prominent Hall of Famer that played the majority of his career in the 70′s and 80′s… Ha! Not like I was shocked but damn… So many members of the Hall of Fame, including this character, have recently spoken out and condemned guys who have had ties to performance enhancing drugs, saying there is no place for “cheaters” in the HOF… I just wonder how many of the other guys in the “Hall” were actually cheaters themselves?

So the Hall of Famer in question is actually part of the chorus condemning the more recent players who used? Color me shocked. But hey, good thing there are so many “protecting” the Hall of Fame from the users of the 90s and 2000s.

Give the rest of Byrnes’ essay a read. There’s a lot of good sense in there.

I think the “take-away” from this guy’s article is that the same guy who used is now mouthing off against steroids. I would not be surprised if this is true. A lot of ‘old school’ jocks seem to have that arrogance, er, excuse me, grit. If the story is true, it might just be a way of sending a message to that clown that maybe he should shut up with his fake self-righteousness.

Sorry to disappoint my friend, but there’s what you know, and what you think you know any you’d be wrong. First, Byrnes being a PED user doesn’t make what he says about others false, if anything, he’s like a drug addict telling you about people he knows that are junkies too. As a sober one some 20+ years, we like you to know better people than us use, not just “losers”. Next, take it from the most honest guy in baseball., David “Boomer” Wells who said 25-40% of all MLB players he knew were juicing or had previously used, that means up to 4 of 10 guys per team used PED’s. This is not the ARod vs the world like most of you chuckleheads want to think it is, you’ve all made him a pariah. I’d love ARod to come out and tell every name of every player he knew that juiced, 90% of you would burst into tears when you found out your favorite player was a PED fan.

baseball crucified them at the end. when congress got involved. when every warm blooded american was turning the tv on to watch every one of sammy and marks at bats in august and september, baseball had no issue.

the reality, is that the overall venom is determined by the likeabiity of the person involved. bonds was unlikeable, and therefore received tons of venom. bret boone and sammy sosa, were outgoing and engaging and received much less negative attention. guys like andy pettite dealt with the issue head on and were contrite, and are still loved.

alex rodriguez and ryan braun fall in the clemens, bonds category. they’ve done all of the things that offend any sensable person. they’ve jumped on the soap box. proclaimed innocence, lied, blamed others, abstained from accepring ownership of their own actions, and acted entitled. all traits that are typically frowned upon.

we, as men, are judged by our actions. americans are apt to forgive quite easily. a little contrition and a show of remorse is typically all it takes. before anyone says that they dont owe that to the fan, I disagree. we, technically, are their employer. the money baseball makes like all major sports, is from gates, parking, merchandising and the vast majority comes from azmedia contracts. those contracts are funded based on the percentage of fans expected to view broadcasts. in short, the funding of professional sports can be traced back, in full, to you and me.

your an attorney craig. two defendants are convicted of the same crime…one is contrite and the other is full of denial and arrogance. are you telling me that the sentence isntdifferent? of course it is.

its no different than any other line of work. we accept mistakes from others and are willing to quickly forgive. but he who has errored has to be halfway smart enough to simply ask. that, is where rodriguez and braun have made their biggest mistakes.

I think you’re giving Ryan Braun a bad rap. His poor relationship with the fans starts and ends with the bullshit delivered by ESPN and their overabundant reporting of a non-event. Knowing what is in Ryan Braun’s urine is not even close to public knowledge. Knowing what is in Ryan Braun’s urine has nothing to do with his abilities as a ballplayer. In fact, insisting that we know what is in Ryan Braun’s urine goes against more than a few individual liberties we are guaranteed by these very United States.

It is safe to say that folks don’t like Ryan Braun. It’s just as safe to say that they don’t like Ryan Braun because the Media does not like Ryan Braun. And, to be perfectly clear about the Media, they do what the Media always does: Make cases in order to make money.

The Media is having a field day with the 1st Amendment. Too bad they wipe themselves with the 4th.

Typical of the media, always has been. Look what they used to do to Ted Williams. They crucify those who don’t kiss their rears, and heave praises on those that do or meet their agendas. I despise the media for the most part.

What would happen if the Media actually reported news on a strict conduct of transparency? I have no problem with whistle blowers, and I have no problem with the protection of anonymity for certain confidants and witnesses. What I do have a problem with is going out-of-bounds to make their case. The Media can get away with anything. Look at the relationship between Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden, for example. There is not a scummier individual than Greenwald (convincing Snowden to go for his NSA job in order to break into their data) and the guy gets away with it free and clear, while Snowden and the other dude are in Russia and dead.

There is too much Media. I know because their standards have gone down the crapper.

Braun a “bad rap”, forget your dreams as a stand-up comedian..he ruined a man’s reputation, got him fired from his job, swore he was 100% clean and was a bold-faced liar..at least ARod fessed up when it came out he was in the Mitchell report. Braun faced it like a true coward.

Do you take yourself seriously when you complain about Braun “ruining” a man’s reputation? You realize you are referring to the moment that Braun’s urine information was leaked (pun not intended) by the Media going against all protocol in terms of the drug testing procedures…,.. No, check that, you can’t even realize the hypocrisy in your own statement.

But, yeah, I’m the comedian. Says the guy who hides behind anonymity calling all sorts of people he doesn’t like a Coward.

To say people don’t like Braun because the media tells them not to is about as dense as it gets. You think people take themselves too serious, but not you huh? Your generalized soap box statements are as balanced as it gets.

You respond to a guys criticisms of Braun by ignoring them and blaming the media. Yeah, the media sucks. No, people are not stupid enough to think the media is why Braun is what he is.

I say Brynes is pointing out the hypocrisy. I’ve always felt that Goose & Eck’s comments about players on the current ballot who they believed weren’t clean were a little over-the-top. Made me think that maybe there was a reason they were protesting so loudly…

Eric Byrnes is an insufferable “Bro” lunatic whose personality outweighed his talent. Now, because he lives in half moon bay, KNBR listeners are subjected to his craptastic “analysis” on KNBR. Everytime he drops a “DUUUUDE” and “BUMGARRDNER” on the air, I turn off the radio and stare at the walls in silence.

The real question is why should we believe Byrnes? He could easily lie (like they all do) and say “someone in the hall took steroids” to try to give instant credibility to the idea that at least one cheat is in so let’s let them all in.

I find it funny that steroids have been around for a while but people think that they just popped up in baseball in the mid to late 90’s. How many NFL players were doing roids in the 70’s I assume some baseball players were doing roids. Steroid just like other medicines have made advances over time and people worked out more and around the clock. I just don’t think people should throw stones at the so called steroid era when we really have no proof and we will never have that proof of what former players did.

Amphetamines were used in baseball as far back as the 50’s and were taken like skittles in the 70’s and 80’s. I guarantee you that there are numerous HoF players who regularly took “greenies” and are still in the Hall. They may not have given the players more power like steroids or HGH, but they certainly helped keep their level of play consistently high through the course of a long, grinding season. Do we put an asterisk by the names of any of those players “suspected” of using amphetamines?

I do think that if Byrnes wants to call out hypocrisy though, he should name names…